Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Earlier this month, the EPA announced a proposed rule that will require a 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions produced by power plants, phased in over the coming decades. The feds are setting goals (which will be tailored to individual states), but it’s up to the states themselves to come up with plans that address those targets. On Wednesday morning, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) held a public meeting to solicit preliminary input from stakeholders including utility companies, environmental groups and consumer advocates. Finally, Arkansas is starting to talk about thinking about how to address climate change.

An open line poses a lingering question for the special session: Can Oaklawn stop a lottery expansion? Plus, bad news for lottery performance and former Arkansas State Police Director John Bailey is named director of the Union Rescue Mission.

On today's program: Lobbyists for Oaklawn are pressing state legislators to support a bill that would keep the state lottery from adding video monitor gambling. Johnny Rhoda, the 2nd District chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, resigned after saying Hillary Clinton wouldn't be well received as a political candidate in Arkansas and would probably be shot at the state line. There are several more judges for Jason Rapert to add to his list of those unfit for the bench. And more.

Proponents of a bill to prevent the Arkansas lottery from expanding into video lottery games at multiple outlets haven't given up trying to prove to Gov. Mike Beebe that they have sufficient votes to pass the measure without controversy.

Johnny Rhoda, the 2nd District Republican chairman, has resigned his party position after his widely quoted remark that Hillary Clinton would "probably get shot at the state line" if she ran for president. Except for Tim Griffin, no party leaders denounced the remark. Chair Doyle Webb merely called it a "distraction."

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The humpday end point

STAFF BLOGS: ARKANSAS BLOG

The late line and video

Same-sex marriage bans were struck down today in Indiana and Utah, on the same ground Judge Chris Piazza cited in striking down the Arkansas law. Jason Rapert is going to be a busy man recalling and/or impeaching all these judicial activists.

FASTERArkansas continues its lobbying push for a change in state law to allow public schools to tap into an existing state broadband network. Fine. But could we get this group to register like everybody else who lobbies for law changes?

The prosecutor in the 1975 rape case in which Hillary Clinton represented the accused rapist says she didn't want to defend the man and tried to get out of the appointment. But she did her duty, as ethics demanded, when she couldn't get released.

Ted Olson, the Republican lawyer who won the case to kill California's Prop. 8 against same-sex marriage, has some reaction to Ted Cruz's remarks about judicial activism in marriage cases. Please copy to Jason Rapert and friends,.

A high-ranking Arkansas Republican — nominally a church pastor — told a national reporter that Hillary Clinton probably would be shot at the state line if she ran for president. He says it wasn't meant to be threatening, but it was terminally stupid. And, with tiny exceptions, Republicans haven't moved to disavow the rhetoric or remove the man from his party post.

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Next week a series of meetings on the use of technology to tackle global problems will be held in Little Rock by Club de Madrid — a coalition of more than 100 former democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world — and the P80 Group, a coalition of large public pension and sovereign wealth funds founded by Prince Charles to combat climate change. The conference will discuss deploying existing technologies to increase access to food, water, energy, clean environment, and medical care.

Plus, recipes from the Times staff.

Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) was on "Capitol View" on KARK, Channel 4, this morning, and among other things that will likely inspire you to yell at your computer screen, he said he expects someone in the legislature to file a bill to do ... something about changing the name of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.

So fed up was young Edgar Welch of Salisbury, N.C., that Hillary Clinton was getting away with running a child-sex ring that he grabbed a couple of guns last Sunday, drove 360 miles to the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C., where Clinton was supposed to be holding the kids as sex slaves, and fired his AR-15 into the floor to clear the joint of pizza cravers and conduct his own investigation of the pedophilia syndicate of the former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state.

There is almost nothing real about "reality TV." All but the dullest viewers understand that the dramatic twists and turns on shows like "The Bachelor" or "Celebrity Apprentice" are scripted in advance. More or less like professional wrestling, Donald Trump's previous claim to fame.

Longtime KARK anchor Beth Ward died last night from complications of heart surgery, according to a report from THV11.

Rep. Kim Hendren this week filed a bill to prohibits the use of cell phones, pagers, beepers, digital media players, digital cameras, digital game consoles, and digital video or audio recorders for public students during the school day.